> This example may not seem like much: cancellation processes are often a hassle, even in Internet companies. (As far back as 2006, AOL made national news for insolently refusing a customer's cancellation request.)
> When Vincent Ferrari, 30, of the Bronx, called AOL to cancel his membership last month, it took him a total of 21 minutes
Wait… that's … that's it? I just cancelled my Comcast account. The call is here in my history: 28m 35s. That only counts the time on the call, mind you; you still have to return their hardware. Including that, it took me well over an hour (driving, waiting in line at the UPS store, driving home), particularly since it had to go to a UPS store. If we count the time that I also spent going to a Comcast store, trying to return their equipment there, which the store and phone representatives later informed me that I "can't" do, because they don't accept "business" class equipment there despite their website directly contradicting that[1], then it took well over two hours to cancel.
(There was a separate call to disconnect service, that was 10m 37s. We moved, and thought we might have Comcast on the other end, so we did that part separately. When we shopped for an ISP on the other end, nobody picked up the phone for Comcast, so we went with their (only) competitor in our area. So, whether you want to count that against the time it took to cancel, IDK.)
> When Vincent Ferrari, 30, of the Bronx, called AOL to cancel his membership last month, it took him a total of 21 minutes
Wait… that's … that's it? I just cancelled my Comcast account. The call is here in my history: 28m 35s. That only counts the time on the call, mind you; you still have to return their hardware. Including that, it took me well over an hour (driving, waiting in line at the UPS store, driving home), particularly since it had to go to a UPS store. If we count the time that I also spent going to a Comcast store, trying to return their equipment there, which the store and phone representatives later informed me that I "can't" do, because they don't accept "business" class equipment there despite their website directly contradicting that[1], then it took well over two hours to cancel.
We've come so far.
[1]: https://business.comcast.com/help-and-support/repairs-instal...
(There was a separate call to disconnect service, that was 10m 37s. We moved, and thought we might have Comcast on the other end, so we did that part separately. When we shopped for an ISP on the other end, nobody picked up the phone for Comcast, so we went with their (only) competitor in our area. So, whether you want to count that against the time it took to cancel, IDK.)